


Heart Hotel [Art]

by PaopuNova



Category: Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: An au of an au that became canon, Destiny's AU, Destiny-Islanders, Gen, Starscourge Sora Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 04:22:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaopuNova/pseuds/PaopuNova
Summary: This is a fic that I wrote for Destiny-Islanders after drawing a short clumsy comic. We'd been discussing the Heart Hotel and Vanitas in general, as he is my favorite character, and the comic and this fic sort of spawned. I saw that an anon of hers wanted me to post it, and I completely forgot about it, so here it is.





	Heart Hotel [Art]

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't know this AU but it interests you, I highly suggest you go over to tumblr and go through Destiny's tags.
> 
> http://destiny-islanders.tumblr.com/tagged/ffxv-x-kh
> 
> and Im sure you can find the comics she draws for this Au somewhere in here  
> http://destiny-islanders.tumblr.com/tagged/Destiny-Doodles

Sora learned early how his Heart Hotel ™ liked to operate.

Roxas and Xion mostly kept to themselves. While Sora was galivanting with the Prince of Lucis across Duscae, Roxas and Xion were content to relax, only showing themselves on occasion in the small things; the way Sora would lose himself to the sound of bells chiming or watching sunsets, or with his adept footwork when it came to skateboarding. Xion lent him her curiosity in places he shouldn’t be curious, much to the cautious Ignis’s chagrin, whereas Roxas gave him courage and dug his heels in the dirt with stubborness.

It was a dangerous sort of emotions and traits to have magnified, if he was being honest. He’d find himself dragging the party into needless danger on accident and getting stuck in fights they couldn’t win. Sora had seen a lot of shit by the time he’d come to Eos. He’d faced a lot of darkness, and he had his own sort of resolve when facing it, but sometimes… it was all too much. The Darkness there was… different, somehow. Messed with him in a new way. He realized Eos was on a whole different level from other worlds, the gods there didn’t play around, but he was a stubborn kid who’d learned young that as long as he believed in the Light, he could do anything.  

Eos taught him that the Light wasn’t always enough. Sometimes,  _he_ wasn’t enough.

When he wasn’t enough, Ventus was always there to keep Sora standing.

The first few times, it had sort of awed, maybe scared, the guys. Sure, Sora was pretty badass and insanely powerful, as they all were, but the times when Ven came out it was just… a different sort of badass. They could all sense the shift from Sora to Ven, even amidst the distractions of battle.

 Sora was raw energy and concentrated instinct. Ven was all of that, with discipline. Despite the backhanded hold he would adopt, it was clear that this other Sora had actual training, something reminiscent to the Crownsguard training Ignis and Gladio had gone through, with tight accurate strikes and speed to rival the advisor’s.

Wind would stir even in the deepest of caves, and Ven would be there, holding the fort long enough for Ignis to strategize a way out, for Gladio to move mountains, and for Noctis and Prompto to secure a victory. Then he would rest, leaving Sora to Ignis’s capable hands at a campsite or a hotel.

If Ignis hadn’t sat him down one evening, Gladio and Prompto sitting on the edge of their seats with Noctis yawning in the background, Sora wasn’t sure he would have noticed on his own. He would have just figured the exhaustion had put him out of commission. He’d blacked out plenty of times. Once, quite literally.

So, it went without saying that when Vanitas started to show up, he really should have known better.

Sora didn’t want to learn  _anything_  from Vanitas. He was dark, dangerous, and made Sora nervous, sometimes. Sora naturally shut out the darkness, pushed down negative feelings in favor of pretending they weren’t there. The more sadness and hatred he felt for things, the more he knew the darkness inside of him would grow. And to be honest, He’d never really taken notice of Vanitas until he’d learned about Ven, but that probably had a lot to do with Ven shielding him from Vanitas and keeping his darker half from acting out.

Ven had always been there protecting Sora, so it was surprising -very, very surprising- to find out that Vanitas was taking him over, albeit rarely. Sora had gone fourteen years without Vanitas taking control of him. So, was Ven getting weaker now that they were on Eos? Seemed unlikely, but the rules of worlds were as different as the stars were innumerable.

Then, Sora woke up one even from one of these episodes, mid-bite with a bowl of Ignis’s crazy good chili, and realized with absolute horror that, no. Ven wasn’t slipping up. Ven was  _letting_  Vanitas have a go at driving the Sora Mobile™.

Ven had a mischievous side to him, and Vanitas was a godless, pranking  _heathen_ who’d just dumped eight raw Leide peppers into Ignis’s simmering pot, leaving Sora to deal with four very pained, very pissed off, petty older brothers.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Vanitas was relentless. Tireless, and unyielding, like Ven.

He’d go weeks without so much as a snicker, only to ruin someone’s day like a sudden rainstorm, joyfully having Sora suffer the consequences.

Noctis once went a whole week one time refusing to speak to Sora after Vanitas skipped a rock over the Hidden Pool’s surface, just for it to sink right in front of the prince, effectively spooking every fish in the pond.

“C’mon Noct! I swear to Shiva, I didn’t- That wasn’t me, it was -”

“Save it. Just… Save it,” The prince responded flatly, before returning to camp.

Sora’d woken up with Prompto screaming at him one early morning, before the sun had bothered to show up with his hair… sort of spiked? Screaming like the _world_ was ending right there, only to shove his hair gel container under Sora’s nose.

“What do you smell, you anthropomorphic porcupine?” Sora’d never seen Prompto make such a face. Like Sora was seconds away from being smothered with a pillow. Like Sora’s kicked Prompto’s favorite chocochick. Sora was almost too scared to take a whiff.

“M-” Sora squeaked out. “-mayo?”

Somewhere, in the darkness, Ignis choked. He whispered, “…mayonnaise?”

“Mayonaise! Friggin’ Miracle Whip’s in my hair, Sora! I smell like Wiz’s godsdamn Fat Chocobo Club Sandwich!” Prompto cried out. Sora swallowed.

“… Wash it out?” He supplied, and Prompto just rolled his eyes over to Sora with a dead sort of stare before dumping the tub of haironaise onto Sora’s chest.

“Yeah. Okay. Wash it out.”

Vanitas _never_ got the drop on Iggy again, not after the chili incident. But Sora had the feeling, when Ignis fed him his signature dish _Toast, Bitch_ for a week straight while Noctis, Prompto, and Gladio all ate their favorites, that Ignis was punishing Sora for failed attempts.

It was frustrating. Truly, epically, frustrating, But it was also funny as hell, and somewhere Ven was laughing too.

 _Especially_ , when Vanitas teased Gladio.

Nothing, and Sora meant _nothing_ , compared to the trouble Vanitas got into with Gladio. There was an incident where Vanitas bought a powerful tanning oil from the stand at Galdin Quay without anyone noticing, and replaced it with Gladio’s. A few hours later and boom, Sora was fending for his life right there on the beach, having flashbacks to days when Riku would kick his ass for dropping crabs down the back of his shirt. Another time? Vanitas found _all_ , _every single damn one_ , of Gladio’s shitty romance novels.

And put them all over the Leville. The sexy parts highlighted with Vanitas’s annotated commentary in a nice pink gel pen that he’d probably stolen from Iris. Sora, flushed red from his ears to his toes, walked on eggshells as he and Gladio collected the paperbacks.

Sora kissed asphalt extra hard during training for the following month.

But oh, man. Prompto recorded Vanitas’s best prank. He wanted to save it for posterity.

_It was the Assassin’s Festival, where they struck. Prompto had admitted that while he hated being on the side being pranked, he was ready to do some of his own. After watching Gladio flirting with Cindy for two days straight while decommissioned in Hammerhead for repairs, he wanted payback. Gladio should have left well enough alone, too, rubbing it in Prompto’s face like that, because honestly Prompto was a forgive and forget kind of guy._

_But while Noctis, Prompto, and Sora went around solving the treasure hunt, who did they find flirting with Cindy at the café? Gladio._

_Prompto looked Sora straight in the eyes then and called Vanitas out by name, and Vanitas just came slithering up from the depths of Sora’s heart like a panther who’d eaten enough, but could easily go for seconds._

_The two of them separated from Noctis, who was more than pleased to be playing Assassin by himself, and they stalked Gladio. Wherever he was, they found him flirting with a girl. Prompto knew that they would, and he was probably righteously pissed to see it, for numerous reasons. This time they found him in a back alley, arm up against the frame of a door with a girl laughing underneath. Vanitas walked right up to Gladio while Prompto hung back, snickering under his breath as he recorded. Gladio had his head bent low over the girl’s face, and though Sora couldn’t make out what sweet bullshit his older bro was slinging, he definitely recognized Vanitas’s loud, mocking tone._

_“Yo, Polly,” Vanitas always slung out some sort of nickname. Sleeping Beauty, Mother (as sarcastically as possible), Chocobo. Real names were too personal, too caring, and Gladio’s always had something to do with his impressive Zu tattoo,_ _“Polly, you tell them about that book you wrote about your rubber ducky fetish?” And gods, Vanitas whipped out one of Gladio’s romance novels right there and then from within the assassin’s robe’s folds, brandishing it like a flag. “Here, sweetheart, let me show you my favorite part. Look I’ve got it highlighted and_ _-_ _Oh. There she goes. Well, I guess I’ll show her next time, right Big Bird?”_

_It progressively got worse with every time they found Gladio._

_“Bird man! Quick! I put her body in the trunk but I left the engine running! We gotta go!”_

_And_

_“Hey, Big Bird, thanks for lending me your copy of ‘I Kissed a Clown and I Liked It.’ Really insightful stuff.”_

And Yeah, Gladio had put him through the ringer when they’d gone home for the night. Gladio’d given him hell for days afterword, but man. Sora couldn’t stop laughing anytime he looked at Gladio’s tattoos.

Ven at some point had informed Sora, with thoughts more than words, that Vanitas was reminded acutely of Terra whenever he was around Gladio. A loyal, powerful knight with a large sword and a large heart? Sora could see it. He also could see why it irritated Vanitas so much.

And when he realized that, and it finally hit him how much fun it felt to be a part of these pranks, Sora begrudgingly recognized that maybe, just maybe… Vanitas wasn’t the _worst_ thing that had happened to him.

~~~~~

At least, he thought that for a while. Until the Light disappeared, and the Starscourge festered within him.  _Then_ , Vanitas was insufferable.

Noctis hadn’t come back from reclaiming the crystal. The Darkness had gotten to Sora, literally, figuratively. Unable to leave with Darkness so thickly trapping the world, Sora had to watch as evil Ardyn’s plans unfurled around him, driving sharp and bloody wedges between his brothers, scattering his family all over Lucis. He did his best to fight the daemons, usually sticking to wherever Prompto was, but there was only so much a guy could do before the weight of it all came crushing down.

The Starscourge snuck in at his weakest moment. And with it, the Light inside started to suffocate.

Xion went first. She was easy to overtake, having been a ghost of a person at best to begin with. But Sora cried and cried and cried, until he couldn’t cry anymore, till his was sick with it, not eating and bent over on the cot Cindy’d given him in the corner of her garage next to Prompto’s.

Then he was angry, because Roxas was _done_ crying. Then, Sora was reckless, and charged head first into the darkness with little care for his own safety, for anyone’s. Until one day, Roxas’s light burned out too.

Sora never dual wielded again after that.

Ven still came when he needed him, but his light was scarce in the darkness. And Vanitas.

How he’d _waited_ for this. Sora could taste the apprehension, the desire from Vanitas to join it, to thrive in it as he watched the world fall to ruin. It was too much, too much for Sora to analyze. He shut Vanitas out, because he was scared of him, and instead focused on relief efforts. Refugee saving, supply runs, campfires with Prompto at his back. Sora became somewhat of a Hero to the people of Lucis.

Sora had expected to feel Vanitas’s anger. After having a brief year of freedom on Eos, Sora expected Vanitas to cling and fight for it. Especially with the darkness feeding into him with every bit of sadness, loneliness, and pain Sora let in during those long years under an empty black sky.

He was more in tune with Vanitas now, had ways of feeling him out now that he’d not had before. He did feel Vanitas’s anger, but not nearly enough. More than anything, Sora felt…

Betrayed. Vanitas felt anger, not because he was being imprisoned again, but because Sora had rejected him?

Sora couldn’t let that thought continue. It wasn’t something he wanted to touch on. He had forgotten, in that year of sunlight, that Vanitas was still a creature born of absolute darkness. He couldn’t feel like Sora did. Like Prompto did, or Kairi. Sora forced himself to remember that as he smothered out the only voice left speaking to him, and became truly alone. He couldn’t afford for a monster, his own private one, to come out and take him over completely. He _couldn’t_ succumb to the Darkness.

But, of course. Sora did.

In the ninth year under that empty sky, Sora contracted the Starscourge. He’d hidden it from Prompto. He became a leper, and willingly isolated himself to at least let people rest at night. It didn’t help how his mind faded with each day, where lapses of judgement and tilted thoughts led him to self-destructive tendencies when the silence shattered down all around him. Sometimes, he thought Vanitas was at it again, fucking with him, laughing at him for being weak and rubbing it in his face.

Sora fell in battle a lot more at the start of that long year. He’d started pulling away even from Prompto, especially after his left eye went yellow. It reminded him too much of Xehanort, of weakness and pain.

 Only, he was never quite _certain_ that Ven was the one coming to his rescue. Sometimes, he felt the cool rush of wind blowing through him, lifting some of the pain away. Sometimes, Sora woke up at home or on the edges of Lestallum choking on smoke and lightning, and dreaming of wildfires.

Ardyn came to him eventually. He’d almost died fighting a daemon way above his pay grade, and the Starscourge had rightly fucked him over midbattle.

“You know,” He said, standing over a pot with Sora’s makeshift camping unit while Sora gasped and gripped at his arm, properly healed despite the infection as he watched Ardyn mock him with every day routines. He nearly spat at him when Ardyn offered the bowl, but it’d been a few days and he was so hungry Ardyn’s shitty soup was almost starting to smell as good as Iggy’s. But with the pain of turning, he could barely lift his head, let alone accept the bowl, so Ardyn set it aside and sank down on his heels to smile condescendingly down onto Sora. “little Child of Light, you won’t make it through the evening. I’d be glad to take some of the pain off of your hands.”

Ardyn had already subjected him to his shitty backstory, his sadness and his betrayal. but Sora didn’t believe any of it gave Ardyn any fucking kind of right to-

“If I don’t, you’ll die here, before _ever_ seeing Noctis again. You’ll never get to go home and see your family ever again.”

Sora held in his tears. He wasn’t going to listen to this. He was a chosen Keyblade Master. He just had to believe in his friends. In Noctis. In the Light. He knew Ardyn could heal him, take the Starscourge and make it easier to breathe again, but he also knew it would only make Ardyn that much stronger. Sora didn’t want to betray Noctis like that, even if it meant dying right there.

“I see it on your face, Child of Light. You want it. You _need_ it, so badly. You’re scared and alone, and the plague is tearing your body, your heart into pieces. It’s agonizing, isn’t it? Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to take enough so that you live a while yet. Wouldn’t want you giving up the ghost before dear Noctis comes back. I’ll make regular visits.” Ardyn put a hand on Sora’s head, and he shuddered, biting into his other arm to muffle a weak noise. Ardyn chuckled, cupping Sora’s chin and forcing him to look up. Sora felt the man’s nails digging deep into the dark rivulets of scourge, and panic flashed through him. Ardyn was going to take it from him no matter what, and gods fucking above Sora was going to feel relieved and eat that shitty soup so he could go back and see Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio one more time.

With tears streaming down his face, Sora said, “Go to hell.”

Ardyn laughed, head tilted. “Eventually.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

[](https://imgbb.com/)   
[](https://imgbb.com/)

 

“Ignis! I can do this, please!” Sora cried out, taking Ignis’s hands into his. They were all sitting in Cindy’s garage, passing around a bottle of something and discussing a much needed, very dangerous supply run to Galdin Quay. Prompto sat pursed with his legs crossed, the red of his Crownsguard boots dull and rust colored after years of abuse. “You _have_ to go back to Lestallum and keep the peace, and Prompto’s escorting Cindy to the pylons with Dave and Holly. If I don’t go with Gladio, who will?”

Gladio growled, arms crossed. “I can _go_ by myself.”

“You can _go_ get yourself killed.”

Ignis sighed and rubbed the sides of his face, his fingers lingering lightly on the scarred skin. “Going alone is out of the question, Gladio. We move in pairs or in groups, always. But Sora, I cannot allow you to go knowing that you…”

Sora frowned. “Knowing what, Iggy?”

Ignis’s eyes opened then, and Sora breathed in a sharp breath to see the moon clouding the advisor’s eyes. “Youre infected with the scourge, Sora. I cannot control you when I am in Lestallum, nor do I want to, but when I am in charge of the missions I cannot knowingly jeapordize them with your condition. If you were to have an episode mid battle, like before…”

“I haven’t had an episode in months! Not since-” Sora choked, his hands wringing in front of him nervously. “well, you know.”

Gladio’s lips raised in a snarl. “Since you let Ardyn fucking Izunia _heal_ you?”

Sora jumped out of his chair and put his hands in his hair, pacing behind them all. “It’s not. You _know_ I didn’t have a choice.”

Gladio grunted. He did know that. Didn’t change the fact that it’d happened. “Hate to break it to you, shortcake, but you _have_ had episodes. A lot of em. You just don’t remember em.”

Sora paused, going cold. “What do you mean? Have I- have I hurt anyone? Did I hurt you guys?”

“No,” Prompto stood when Sora’s voice broke, kicking out at Gladio’s shin with ease. The shield hissed, but didn’t say anything as Prompto came and brought Sora back to his seat. “No, you haven’t. Sorry, we didn’t tell you. We didn’t want to spook you with it, but um…”

Sora wiped his face with a trembling hand. Prompto looked to Ignis for help, but looked down ashamed when he realized Ignis couldn’t see him. “Prompto. I’ve literally been to hell. I’ve fought daemons for ten years, Heartless and Nobodies before that. You can’t spook me anymore.”

Prompto huffed, aggravated with himself. “Jeez, you’re not gonna be happy about it. Look. You know the other you?”

“… There are-” Sora cleared his throat. “Were. A few other mes. I’ll take a shot in the dark and say you’re talking about Ven?”

Prompto’s soft smile twitched. “Um. Not exactly. The other one, Vanitas, I think? Well, uh… whenever your Starscourge starts to act up? He comes out.”

“Did _he_ hurt you, because I swear to Shiva I’ll-”

No, Sora,” Ignis interjected. “He comes out to save you.”

It took him a few long, silent moments to process that. “You’re wrong. There’s no way he…”

Gladio scratched the back of his head and sighed out through his nose. “The black haired one with yellow eyes? Used to steal chicks from me to mess with me by playing it off that he looked just like the Prince of Lucis? Whenever your infection goes nuts he comes out and… I dunno, suffers for you? He won’t let us help him or anything, but he doesn’t attack us. He usually lays down in the back of Talcott’s truckbed and groans and moans in pain. Every once in a while? One of those weird creatures appears and takes off.”

“The Unversed.” Sora stated flatly. “He makes those when he’s overwhelmed.”

Gladio fixed Sora with a solid amber gaze. “He’s been taking the Starscourge pain away from you. You’ve been having them regularly every couple of weeks or so and he never fails to take over for you.”

Sora thought about that for a minute. It’d been probably about five months since Ardyn had sucked the scourge out of him, but it clearly hadn’t been enough to completely heal him nor enough to stop the flare ups. And he remembered Ardyn had started coming around for those ‘regular visits’ he’d mentioned, too, leaving Sora so messed up in the head about light, darkness, family and friends and daemons that the real torture was no longer being inflicted with the scourge, but suffering survivor’s guilt after Ardyn took the pain away from him. Then he’d stopped coming around, and he’d figured that maybe he’d taken enough. Maybe the scourge was taking a break.

Vanitas had been protecting him from the pain? He didn’t know what to say to that. Why? He’d been so thrilled about the Darkness. Probably couldn’t have waited for it to overtake Sora. So why was he fighting against it? Sora couldn’t understand.

Sora took in a deep breath, returning to the facts. “Okay. But if that’s true then you don’t have to worry about me, right? I can still go with you to the Quay. You can’t go alone to the Quay and there’s no one else. You need me to go.”

“I don’t know, Sora. It’s a bad plan.” Prompto mused, not liking it one bit. “But we do need those supplies. Like, yesterday. Iggy?”

Ignis rubbed between his eyebrows and Gladio grunted, finishing off whatever it was they were drinking before tossing the glass into a bin. Ignis thought on it for a long while before he finally conceded. “It will be a risk, but we must get those supplies. But, Sora, You’ll listen to Gladio’s every command, and if he says leave, you will leave. We don’t want daemonic activity stirring you up. Avoid all confrontation, get the supplies, and come back home safely.”

Relief washed over Sora. “Yeah, Iggy, of course.”

“Is that okay, Gladio?”

Gladio exchanged glances with Sora, who shrugged a little, one hand on his arm. “You tell me if you start to feel it, okay? We need those supplies, but we also need our resident hero alive, okay?”

Sora nodded and watched Gladio stand and stretch. “Go get some sleep, Shortcake. We’ll go in four hours.”

Sora knew he needed to sleep, but he doubted he’d be able to with this new information about Vanitas. Already his chest was warm with something strange, like… embarrassment?

When he sat down in the corner on his cot, Prompto joined him, stretching out on his own cot with his hands folded over his chest. He opened and closed his mouth as if he had more to say on the matter, so after Sora snuggled down under his threadbare sheets he forced it out of him.

“Look, Sora. There’s more to it that just those episodes. You remember when Ardyn was showing up to fuck with you? Well, You uh. You cried every night after he came and I know… I know how that feels. To have someone toying around in your head with the things you care most about. With Ardyn messing around with the things you care most about.” Prompto’s blue gaze flickered over to Sora. “And it made me. So. Angry. I wanted to kill Ardyn every damn time he showed up. But. I can’t. I’m just… you know. Me. I’m not like you or Noct. I can’t _do_ that cool stuff. I can’t hurt him.”

Sora made a noise. “It’s okay, Prompto. It’s really not like I can do much to him, either. I think only Noctis can.”

Prompto snorted, laughter bubbling up. “Nah, man. That’s where I’m getting at. You know how it made me super angry?” Prompto reached out a hand and poked Sora in the chest, right over his heart. “It pissed off the other you even more. You came back one night soaked head to toe in someone’s blood.”

He sort of remembered that. It was one of the few times Vanitas’s voice had come through to him, and he’d been totally freaked out coming out of a small black out covered in blood. He couldn’t tell if Vanitas had taken him over or not, the feelings of possession not so far off from the hallucinogenic effects of the scourge. He’d said, _It’s not yours. Don’t worry about it._

“It was Ardyn’s. I don’t know how I know, but I’m pretty sure our Prank god started tearing Ardyn a new asshole every time he came to fuck with you.”

Sora hesitated. “He… probably just wants the Scourge to spread faster…”

“While keeping you from suffering from it?” Prompto sighed and sank back into his pillow. “Must be the biggest self-sabotaging masochist I’ve ever heard of.”

Sora thought about that long after Prompto started snoring.

What had Vanitas said to him back then?

_Like I said. Don’t worry about it._

_~~~~~~_

It had gone so wrong, so quickly.

The scourge didn’t flare up, but it didn’t need to. They’d been ambushed in the hills outside of Gladin Quay by mindflayers, and a Red Giant. It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, if the daemons hadn’t caught them in the small cave right outside of the Zu’s old sleeping grounds, effectively trapping them in with the Red Giant’s burning mass while the mindflayers tore into Sora and Gladio. Sora could move around swift and dodge, but there wasn’t enough room for Gladio to swing a sword. And then, after they managed to destroy the mindflayers at the peak of exhaustion, Sora hadn’t noticed the red giant’s earth-shattering attack in time to dodge.

Gladio noticed, and shoved Sora out of the way, taking the full frontal blast.

Sora wasn’t sure how Gladio could move with all those burns and cuts. How he could bring the Red Giant down in such a state, but the Shield did. He managed it, just before collapsing.

When he couldn’t feel a pulse, Sora poured every potion and Hi-Potion he had on him, chanting curaga spells through a sloppy mess of tears, knowing his magic didn’t work like that there in Eos. And for the most part, dropping every healing item in their possession seemed to do the trick. Gladio was breathing again and most of the cuts and burns had turned into soft pink tissue. But Gladio wouldn’t wake up, no matter what Sora did.

That, of course, is when his infection started to flare and pulse, making his hands shake and his lungs burn. Of course it would strike then, when he couldn’t see straight. When Gladio was unconscious and weighing more than a damn Garula. When Sora was so beaten and bruised from his fight because he’d spent every item he had on keeping Gladio alive.

Tears clouded his eyes as he stared as his palm, the purple tendrils of scourge digging deeper into him. Oh, gods. How was he going to get out of this? Why wasn’t believing in the Light enough anymore? If he left Gladio, he’d be eaten by daemons. If he stayed with Gladio, he’d still be eaten by a daemon. A Sora- shaped Daemon.

That image, not unlike the image of his anti-form self, made him freeze up.The panic set in, and he stopped breathing all at once.

_You’ve got to keep moving Sora._

The voice spooked him, forced him to inhale sharply. At first, he thought it was Ven. He hadn’t heard a word from Ven in almost ten years, and perhaps it was wishful thinking that made him image that.

It was Vanitas who spoke.

His throat seized up, his hand placed over the faint pulse of Gladio’s heart. “I can’t leave him here. I can’t stay either. I can’t-” Why was he talking to Vanitas about this? It wasn’t anything that Vanitas didn’t already know. Yet the words came spilling out of him, like Vanitas’s voice in his head was the most nostalgic and comforting thing he’d ever felt. “Everything hurts, Vani. I can’t do it anymore.”

_Giving up already? Some Keyblade Master you are._

“That’s not fair, Vanitas.” Sora rubbed his eyes. “That’s not fair, and you know it.”

_Nothing has ever been fair. That’s what so irritating about you light bearers; All you guys do is whine about what’s right and wrong, fair and unfair, good and evil. You think that if you just believe enough that everything will turn out right for you, but it won’t. You know, I really like Eos. Its real. It’s painful and dangerous and Dark, and you can’t save it Sora. Sleeping Beauty’s going to come back to fix all of this, and you know what? You’re not going to be able to save him, either. He’s going to come back and save you. That is, if you suck it up right here and survive long enough to see him again._

Sora covered his ears and let out a soft sob “Vanitas, shut up.”

_You’re pathetic, Sora. You’ve got all this power, all these worlds relying on you to save them, but you can’t even save your friend_ _-_

“Then why?” Sora hissed, “Why are you like this? If you want to hurt me so badly, why did you protect me from the Starscourge? From Ardyn? Tell me.”

Vanitas went quiet, and Sora heard his blood rushing in his ears. Distantly, the wind picked up outside of the cave, howling low and steady. For a few terrorizing moments, Sora thought Vanitas wasn’t going to answer him. And while he was glad that the verbal torture was gone, he was pained to hear that silence once more.

_I don’t know._

“C’mon, Vanitas. That’s not an answer. Why did you protect me from Ardyn?”

Vanitas paused again.

_Do you remember what you said to Riku after defeating Xemnas?_

“I said, ‘maybe the darkness has gotten to me too’.” Sora sighed.

_Yeah, well. Maybe the Light’s gotten to me._

Something about that… made Sora hopeful. Warm. Confused. “… Yeah?”

_Yeah. I’ve been trapped in this cage of yours for… twenty-three years now, and it used to suck. It was always so bright, stupidly hot and painful. And then, somewhere along the way, it stopped hurting so much. I was there with you every step of the way of your life. I felt what you felt. I got to… I got to be stuff, different stuff, than that monster Xehanort conditioned me to be. Sure, you got angry, felt betrayed, became lonely. But I…_

Sora had also loved. And smiled. He’d shaken hands with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. He’d partied in the jungle with Tarzan and flown to the Neverland Clock Tower. He’d struggled with Hayner and Seifer, and he’d save the world a few times. It had been a painful, long journey, there was no doubt. But there had been a lot of good things about it too.

Vanitas seemed to sigh. _Don’t get me wrong. I hate you so much for keeping me trapped here, forcing me to feel things. Watching your sorry ass swordsmanship as you somehow save the universe. But you and Ven shine like midnight suns. That’s why I can’t stand to see you acting so pathetic. Someone who’s beat me can’t be beaten by Darkness. I_ am _the Darkness. And I’m really pissed you’ve let so much Not-my-Darkness in! Watching Ven fight it is like asking for Donald to heal you. It’s just not going to happen._

Sora raised an eyebrow and laughed.

_So, I guess what I’m saying is. Shut up, grit your fucking teeth, and haul Big Bird out of here._

“And if the scourge gets me?”

_Don’t worry about it._


End file.
